Mobile Payments Provider, Square in Talks with Potential Buyers

Published on: 21st Apr 2014

Note -- this news article is more than a year old.

Google is reported to have held talks with the mobile payments company, Square about a possible acquisition.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal said
that investors are said to be seeking a deeper pocketed owner as the mobile
payments provider takes longer than expected to turn a profit.

The five year old company has raised USD340 million from investors, but also
spent more than half of it, with most of that last year.

Google discussed a possible acquisition of Square earlier this year,
according to three people familiar with the matter.

However, it was also reported that those talks were at a fairly basic level
and did not progress much further.

Other potential buyers are said to include Apple and PayPal, and also did not
lead to serious negotiations. PayPal in particular may struggle to buy a
payments company following pressure from Carl Ichan at its eBay parent to sell
the payments division.

Square's co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey was also a co-founder at Twitter.
The company is estimated to have around a million customers, who processed
transactions in excess of USD20 billion last year.

The firm is said to have around $100-200 million available as a credit
facility, but could reach a crunch point by the end of this year as losses
continue to mount. It may be that potential buyers are simply biding their time
for the company to fold, so that they can pick up the pieces afterwards at a
lower price.

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